This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-16852, filed on Mar. 27, 2002 in Korea, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma apparatus and more particularly, to a plasma-measuring device to measure plasma generated at a chamber of the plasma apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, a new material field for development and treatment of new materials has been rapidly grown as science is developed, and results of the new material field become a driving force of development in a semiconductor industry.
A semiconductor device is a large scale integrated circuit (LSI) which is fabricated through subsequent deposition and patterning processes of thin films on a substrate, and theses processes are performed in a process module for a semiconductor device including a chamber which is a closed reaction vessel.
In processes of fabricating a semiconductor device, increase of production yield and improvement of quality have been incessantly pursued through enlargement of a substrate and fine resolution. Accordingly, a fabricating method of a semiconductor using plasma is suggested, and an ultra large scale integrated circuit (ULSI) is developed by using this fabricating method. For the fabricating method using plasma, a plasma-generating source is additionally installed in a process module for a semiconductor device, especially in a chamber, and a substrate is treated with plasma generated from the plasma-generating source. The plasma-generating source is classified into several types according to a principle of generating plasma.
Among the several types of plasma-generating source, a capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) type plasma-generating source and an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) type plasma-generating source are widely used for a fabricating process of a semiconductor device. In the CCP type plasma-generating source, two conductive plates are disposed parallel and spaced apart from each other. One conductive plate is grounded and the other conductive plate is connected to a power supply having a high frequency. Plasma is generated when gaseous materials pass through a space between two conductive plates. In ICP type plasma-generating source, plasma is generated through applying a time-varying electromagnetic field in a region having gaseous materials. In both of CCP and ICP types, a substrate is treated in a chamber having plasma generated from the plasma-generating source.
When a semiconductor device is fabricated in a chamber having a plasma-generating source, reaction conditions including a pressure and a temperature of the chamber are adjusted for reliable process and an interior of the chamber forms a separate reaction system independent of an exterior of the chamber. Generally, since the chamber is made of metallic material of low cost such as stainless steel and aluminum, it is difficult to detect a plasma state generated in the chamber. Moreover, since high cleanness is required in the fabricating processes of a semiconductor device to minimize a contamination by impurities, a process module includes a plurality of clean spaces. Accordingly, it is more difficult to detect the plasma state generated in the chamber during the fabricating processes.
To solve this problem, a method of detecting a plasma state by using electric characteristics of plasma according to a related art has been suggested. In the method according to a related art, a probe of metallic material is inserted into the chamber including plasma and a voltage is applied to the probe. The quantity of a feedback current generated from plasma colliding with the probe is measured. Accordingly, the plasma state is indirectly detected by using at least one probe inserted into the chamber or by scanning the interior of the chamber with a sensing element of rod shape having at least one probe. However, the plasma state of only a partial portion can be detected through the method according to a related art. Therefore, a plasma state adjacent to the substrate and each plasma state according to a position over one substrate can not be detected.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a plasma apparatus including a plasma-measuring device that substantially obviates one or more of problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a plasma apparatus including a plasma-measuring device that can detect a plasma state of a portion adjacent to a substrate where a fabricating process is performed.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a plasma apparatus of fabricating a semiconductor device includes: a chamber including a reaction region; a chuck in the reaction region; and a plasma-measuring device on a top surface of the chuck, comprising: a probing plate including a plurality of probes on a top surface thereof, and a detecting plate under the probing plate, the detecting plate including a plurality of detecting portions corresponding to the plurality of probes, the plurality of detecting portions being electrically connected to the plurality of probes.
The plasma apparatus further includes a plasma-generating source over the reaction region and the plasma-generating source includes a first radio frequency (RF) power supply, a first impedance-matching unit and a load.
The first RF power supply supplies a power of high frequency, the first impedance-matching unit matches an impedance of the power supplied from the first RF power supply, the load generates a time-varying electromagnetic field, and the time-varying electromagnetic field generates plasma in the reaction region.
The plasma apparatus further includes a bias source attached to the chamber and the bias source includes a bias electrode in the chuck, a second impedance-matching unit and a second RF power supply. The plurality of probes attracts and collides with ions of the plasma to generate a current and the current is transmitted to the plurality of detecting portions.
The plasma-measuring device further includes a supporting plate between the detecting plate and the chuck and the supporting plate includes a hole at a center thereof.
The plasma-measuring device further includes a plurality of lines extending from a bottom surface of the detecting plate through the hole and the plurality of lines is electrically connected to the plurality of detecting portions, respectively.
The detecting plate has the same shape as a top surface of the chuck. The plurality of probes includes one of tungsten and platinum and has one shape of pin and button. A number of the plurality of probes is one of 9, 25 and 49.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.